Paul Clement: Gylfi Sigurdsson should stay at Swansea

Swansea City manager Paul Clement believe that Gylfi Sigurdsson would stay at the club.

Sigurdsson, 27, rejoined Swansea City after two-years with Tottenham Hotspur where he had spent two years struggling to secure regular first-team appearances.

However, his return to the Swans has been fruitful as the Iceland international scored nine Premier League goals and assisted another 13 in this campaign — helping the club secure survival with one game to spare.

As such, Sigurdsson is likely to take into consideration his experience at Spurs to remain rooted in Swansea despite attracting interest from Everton.

“I think he has a unique situation,” Clement said. “He was here on loan and then he went to Tottenham, which was set to be the next step in his career.

“It didn’t work out, (but) he came back here and has done really well. He is going to have that in his mind. If he is going to make the next step it has to be a positive one.”

“He cannot have another situation like he had at Tottenham, where he potentially goes somewhere and is in and out of the side and does not gather any momentum. Otherwise he is better staying here, being a key player and building something around moving this club forward.”

While Swansea had mostly been fighting against relegation for the past two seasons, Clement hopes that Sigurdsson would stay if he could be convinced the club could distance themselves from the drop zone next season.

“We want him to be able to see from the second half of the season that he is not going to have another situation like this season,” Clement said. “A lot of players have to make that decision in their careers. I am not necessarily talking about Gylfi, but do they want to be a smaller fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond?”

“He has a lot of ambition and I can understand that. I hope he stays here, but I also hope in the future he gets the opportunity to play for a really big club.”

Clement himself had been Swansea’s third manager of the season after Bob Bradley and Franceso Guidolin, took over a side in January that was bottom with only 12 points from 19 games.